Europe’s Shameful Decade

The post 2000 decade was a Lost Decade for Europe’s semiconductor industry, Malcolm Penn, CEO of Future Horizons, told IFS2012 last week. “It’s been quite shameful,” he said.

“If the Big Three companies had stayed at the same market share that they had in 2000, they’d have had $86bn of revenues in the decade. And that ignores the extra effects of lost growth because they were growing quite nicely. They threw it all away and rewarded themselves with nice bonuses all round.”

The Big Three have been degraded to second tier players. “It’s been a decade of deliberate European IDM wealth destruction, bonuses all round, and thanks for the EU and public authority subsidies,” said Penn.

Korea overtook Japan last year to become the second largest manufacturer of semiconductors, says IHS.more »

16 Comments

Bitter

July 19, 2012 22:36

Anyway, as a certified master of the blindingly obvious; have the question _seriously_ been put forward to the man?
Though, perhaps the managerial leeches witches’ brew have become too toxic during the post Pistorio era?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9da7JWJJUc
Freudian slip: “I think ST _was_ a great company”?

georgegrimes-ti-com.myopenid.com

July 18, 2012 15:55

RobertI, in this context I believe it is
Key
Enabling
Technology

Mike Bryant

July 18, 2012 12:47

> “perhaps very expensive”
Unfortunately (for me) not. EU rates are even lower than FPGA design contracting rates
There are still tax incentives – it just takes more time to find them hidden in the company reports.
And if you know a way to get Pistorio back do tell !!!

It’s too late now, Asia has semiconductor leadership, no amount of EU grants and hand outs will help.

Bitter

July 18, 2012 09:58

I am sure the EU nomenklatura have great people, perhaps very expensive, at their disposal assisting them figuring these things out? 😉
Though, what use to work for govt.’s is tax incentives. You wouldn’t believe how fast the cronies would be replaced if there would be some easy and fast money in there for the owners.
For STM, let’s call it the “Pistorio is back”-deduction. The elaborate technical details, though, I conveniently duck for.
For the bloated telecom network provider bureaucracy, lets all together enjoy when Samsung seriously start gnawing on the profits and market share. Way too many excessive lifestyles and too little innovation and product have been created thanks to its hordes of semi-concious bean-counters in charge. What saves them for now is that they happen to suck just barely slightly less than the other competing telecoms.

Mike Bryant

July 18, 2012 09:12

I thought the best line in the accounts was
“Goodwill 742″
That’s in millions of Euros !!
The whole of STM, a much larger organisation with a huge number of customers and a magic ingredient called profit is only just over a billion. But that profit is being used to keep STE going rather than STE’s good engineers being reassigned to addressing markets that STM excels at.

David Manners

July 18, 2012 07:55

Have just got the answer, Bitter, it was a bit of Ferro-fiddling. tthe so-called ‘adjusted operating loss’ of $235m conceals an actual loss of $318m and the loss is now up to $3.5m a day. Yes, this is one for the knackers yard. Maybe the poll should be: How much will ST-E be losing by Q4? Answers: $5m a day; $10m a day; $15m a day. Or more?

David Manners

July 18, 2012 07:46

Ah Yes, Bitter, now I see. Mike Bryant was saying that the agony should be ended at IFS2012 last week and ST-E put out of its misery. Q2’s bit better though, or is this Ferro-accounting?

Mike Bryant

July 18, 2012 01:02

@Bitter : Malcolm and I both pointed out that the EU are pulling what hair they have left out over the goings on at all three IDMs. They don’t have any control though so what can they do ?

Bitter

July 17, 2012 23:11

– Poll: Which STE site(s) is next in line for layoffs.
– Poll: When will the depressing experiment called ST-E end?
– Top 10: Reasons why STE suck.
– Delusions: ST-E’s Break-even in 2013.
– Dilemmas: ST-E’s all hat and no cattle.
– Politics/Bullshit: Perpetual losses explained by Carlo Ferro of ST-E.

David Manners

July 17, 2012 22:40

OK Bitter what do you have in mind?

Bitter

July 17, 2012 22:36

ST-E is technically still in business, but for all practical means the company seem to be defunct, this was vindicated by a few ST-E CPO rumors that happened to reach my ears a while back.
The incompetents in EU coupled with the STE, STM & Ericsson cronies have created a fine little jobs program for the elitist leeches.
I wonder, though, how long this perpetual fail will last?
David, time for a new poll perhaps?

Anyway, as a certified master of the blindingly obvious; have the question _seriously_ been put forward to the man?
Though, perhaps the managerial leeches witches' brew have become too toxic during the post Pistorio era?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9da7JWJJUc
Freudian slip: "I think ST _was_ a great company"?

> "perhaps very expensive"
Unfortunately (for me) not. EU rates are even lower than FPGA design contracting rates :-)
There are still tax incentives - it just takes more time to find them hidden in the company reports.
And if you know a way to get Pistorio back do tell !!!